


Wild Youth

by kawada_s



Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2019-02-27 06:52:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13242846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawada_s/pseuds/kawada_s
Summary: Mitsuko and Satomi awaken after the Program to a new life, but it comes with a heavy price. As time goes by and their world is opened up, will they continue to be willing to pay?





	Wild Youth

It is dark for a long, long time. After the images fade away, so does the pain, and the darkness is paired with utter nothingness. There should be nothing, she knows that, unless she’s going to burn in hell for eternity, the place where she’s been told she’ll end up countless times in her fifteen years. She doesn’t believe in any of that shit, so unless hell is a dimly lit room that smells like bleach, something is seriously wrong. This is not what is supposed to happen after you die – not that anyone knows, really, but she doubts it includes breathing again.

Was this all an incredibly fucked dream? Did her brain decide to cook up something a little more creative than the usual suffocating, twisted trips back down into the past? When she gets up, nothing hurting at all, another sign that she just had a dream, she realises she is not in her room. Oh well, that’s fine. She’s slept in some pretty weird places through the years, but all she wants to do now is go home.

To do that, she has to try and figure where she is. She looks down and sees she isn’t wearing her pyjamas, her uniform, or any of her casual clothes, but instead some sort of weird black jumpsuit that she’s never seen before in her life. Is this still a dream? If so, her brain needs to step up their game. Being put out of her misery by the class android she never paid attention to takes the fucking cake. But enough about that. It’s time to try and pull herself together, and get to the bottom of this, whatever it is.

The room is dimly lit – wait, she’s already pointed that out, and absolutely disgusting, making no sense at all with the hospital-like smell in the air. There’s nothing on the walls, save for dark brown marks that look suspiciously like old,  dried blood, making her take a step backwards. It reminds her too much for her dream for her liking at the moment. She’ll probably look back at it and laugh about it, but that time isn’t now. She’s on edge.

When she steps back, she feels something hit her, and before she can stop herself, she gasps, turning around as fast as she can. _Get it together, Mitsuko,_ she pleads with herself, but it’s too late now.

Out of everyone in the universe that could possibly be the person she bumped into, this person never crossed her mind at all. Looking like a startled animal that is about to try and bolt is Satomi Noda, the female class nerd. She looks more anxious than usual, and slightly younger without her glasses. It’s all she’s really noticed about her before, Satomi not even a big enough blip on her radar to go out of her way to make fun of. Due to this fact, it’s hard to think of a reason why they’d be in the same room together at all.

Satomi wasn’t even in that weird ass dream she had, unless she’s forgotten something.

She’s just about to ask her why she’s here when, catching her off guard completely, Satomi punches her in the face. She hits the ground and immediately places a hand to her bloodied nose, rage beginning to fill her. The nerd actually can throw a punch, but she’s sure she can kick her ass. She’d definitely have the most experience out of the two of them.

Satomi is yelling at her now, kicking her, calling her the devil, and no matter what she does, she just can’t get up. She screams and screeches and yells unintelligible things, until the door creaks open, her shouts getting someone’s attention. When Satomi is pulled away from her, now yelling something about something, Mitsuko not exactly sure what, is _their_ fault. Again, she has no idea who is at fault.

Three thoughts stick out the most to Mitsuko at the time. One, why is _Satomi Noda_ of all people screaming and carrying on like an absolute lunatic? Two, why the hell are the two in the same place? Three, where the hell are they?

Two people drag Satomi out of the room, not seeming to care at all about her behaviour. When the door shuts, the sound echoing around the room, a light flicks on. While she tries not to, Mitsuko jumps and a groan escapes her lips. It hasn’t been this light for so long, and it’s going to take some getting used to again. She blinks furiously and rubs her eyes, eventually pulling herself together enough to fix her eyes fully on the one other person left in the room.

A woman, looking to be in about her mid-thirties, wearing thick glasses and a lab coat that has the government insignia on it. She grips the clipboard in her hand for dear life, holding it to her chest, looking completely put together and composed. As if she can sense Mitsuko is going to speak, going to demand to know what is going on and ask as many questions as she can until she gets the desired answers, she beats her to it.

“Mitsuko Souma, right?” The government woman asks. It’s clear she knows who she is. Mitsuko just nods, hating herself for just going along with it and obeying like a spineless moron (hell, even Satomi put up more of a damn fight), but something in her eyes scares her, and she hasn’t truly been scared in a long time.

“Y-yes,” Mitsuko stammers, only adding to her anger with herself. The woman purses her lips for a moment and studies her before speaking again.

“Welcome to the Retribution Program.”

Mitsuko looks at her, before images flood her mind, from the strange dream that she only awoke from not even fifteen minutes ago. Bloodshed. Gunshots. Utter carnage. It wasn’t a dream at all, and she can’t hide her shocked expression when it fully starts to sink in.

 _Fuck,_ she stares down at the ground, wanting to look somewhere, anywhere, that isn’t the woman’s eyes or the insignia on her lab coat. _It was real._

It doesn’t take long for Mitsuko to catch onto the new routine. What else can she do? It’s not like she came all this way die again, especially not by being shot for refusing to comply with the new life – or rather, second life, she thinks, she’s been given. These are rules she’s willing to stay on the right side of, really. It’s easy. Listen to what you’re told, keep a careful eye on your instructor, and take out any anger you might have on the big red target in front of you. It doesn’t take her long to get the hang of it, really.

The Retribution Program is special, she knows, meaning that for once, _she’s_ special. It’s rare to end up here. Most former losers rot in the ground in a complete state of disarray, a distant memory within a few years and forgotten by the end of the decade. This doesn’t happen often. Winners are too much work to deal with in these situations, she’s heard, so they turn to the most determined losers instead. Train hard, work hard, don’t ask questions, and one day, she’ll be able to join the outside world again… well, not exactly, but it’s good enough.

Eating the same shitty food and shooting a gun day in and day out can get boring, but the whispers she hears around the place are enough to satisfy her for now. While she’d never admit it, she’s curious to see if Satomi ever makes a return. Why the hell would she be here? She seems like the least potential candidate to end up here.

She’s been here three months now, and so far, it’s been fine. She doesn’t talk to anyone really, save for the instructor when she needs to, or to some of the boys, but only when she has to, when she needs to know something. Even then, she wonders if it’s worth the effort. Today, she feels angry, and shooting a gun at a person-shaped target isn’t enough to satisfy her, so she sticks to herself in the corner with the punching bag. For awhile, she pretends that it’s Kiriyama, that bastard, but that gets old and boring after the first fifteen minutes. For the next fifteen, she pretends it’s Yoshimi, but that gets boring too. In frustration, she hits it as hard as she possibly can, smiling when it swings almost ferociously, then takes a minute to catch her breath.

That’s when she hears the sound of something hitting the ground across the room. Since there’s not a lot of them, it’s easy to hear everyone in the training room all the time, and recognise everyone by their distinct sounds. This sound doesn’t have a distinct attachment to anyone, and she already knows everyone off by heart, so she lets her eyes wander.

Satomi has made a reappearance. She has a new pair of glasses now, and she looks skinnier than she used to, her hair longer and her body shakier. She looks like absolute hell. She’s standing by one of the instructors, arms crossed, a gun between the two of them on the ground. One of her hands, the one that held the gun, is shaking profusely. Mitsuko doesn’t know why exactly, but her first instinct is to laugh. _Weak bitch._

“Not. Today.”

Satomi’s voice is deadly serious, it pretty daring, Mitsuko immediately thinking. People have left the training room in body bags for less, but still Satomi is still here, her hair in a tight ponytail, fists clenched, and there’s no sign of her being blown into bits anytime soon. She kicks the gun closer to the instructor and then heads off to the bags, and surprisingly, he leaves her alone.

Mitsuko thinks about how she went absolutely insane on her first day – an action she’s still aiming to get revenge for soon, she just needs to find the right place and the right time, out of the prying eyes of the others. Fuck her up enough for people to know, but not enough to get the attention of anyone to catch her in the act and have her face the consequences. Judging by the way Satomi seemed to have no trouble punching her – _Mitsuko Souma,_ in the face, makes her think that others may be wary of her, and for good reason.

It seems weird that she can’t, or rather _won’t_ , hold a gun, but it’s none of her business. Still, when she begins to take out her anger on the punching bag, she can’t help but start playing with her.

“So, you’re still alive,” Mitsuko muses. Satomi stops for a moment, tucking an escape strand of hair behind her air, and shoots her a look of death. “I thought, at least judging by your behaviour last time we met, you might be gone. One shot is all it takes.”

“Shut up,” Satomi says through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the beads of sweat running down her forehead. “Shut up or I swear-“

“Yeah, one shot. Two, maybe. If they miss. Three, if you aren’t so lucky. Maybe even four. Bang bang. Taken out the back and shot like a rabid animal. That’s you, Noda. Or, at least I thought,” Mitsuko continues to tease her, watching her she clenches her fists and clenches her teeth so hard that Mitsuko wonders if they’ll eventually crumble.

“Fuck you,” Satomi’s voice is clear as day. “You… you’re insane. Crazy. I’m not crazy. You deserve to be here, with all the other crazies. I should be in school. Yeah, at school. With all the good people. I’m good. _I never did anything wrong.”_

“Oh, I’m crazy?” Mitsuko just laughs, knowing that she does sound fucking nuts. “What about you? Our first day together didn’t give me much evidence to declare you sane. Also, you can’t even hold a gun, so you’re weak and crazy.”

“I _can!”_ Satomi yells at her, knowing she’s falling right into her trap, but she cannot pull herself back.

“Show me,” Mitsuko says. Satomi looks at her for a moment, knowing she can’t back down from this challenge, but decides to try and make it on her own terms as much as she can.

“Fine. I will. But tonight,” Satomi insists. The less of an audience, the better. It’s bad enough Mitsuko will be there.

“Deal,” Mitsuko smiles widely at her, then goes back to the punching bag. She can’t wait to watch her fail.

 

They sneak into the training room that night. Mitsuko doesn’t care, and while Satomi normally would, she’s finding she doesn’t care much about anything at all. What’s the point about caring about anything, anymore? All her plans are completely ruined now, anyway. She’s stuck in this shithole, with a life of nothing but gore ahead of her, her dreams in pieces, friends gone, _some friends they turned out to be, ha,_ and absolutely nothing to look forward to. The only thing she has to look forward to at the moment is proving Mitsuko wrong, but doubt is strong in her mind the whole time she walks up to the weapons. She chooses the gun that least reminds her of the Program, fumbles around for a few minutes trying to load it, and then prepares herself. She’s always been about perfection before, but not this time. This time, all that matters is takin a shot.

She grips the gun tightly, aiming. She doesn’t fire, however. She thinks of blood and guts, the stink of vomit, death and smoke, and she drops it. Mitsuko’s laughing brings her back to reality, and after shooting her a glare, she grabs the gun again. She can do it. She can. It wasn’t hard when she did it before, so why is it so hard now.

_They deserved it, after all. They all did. All of them. Bastards. She didn’t do anything wrong._

“Come on, Noda. At this rate, we’ll be here all night,” Mitsuko says, biting her lip. In reality, she doesn’t care, as she doesn’t get much sleep at all unless she manages to grab some of the good stuff from the infirmary, but she doesn’t do it often. Only if it’s a really bad night. She’s not a weak bitch. Not like Satomi.

“Shut up. I’ll do it when I’m ready,” Satomi says. She drops it again.

This goes on for an hour. Mitsuko laughs and laughs, it the best entertainment she’s had in ages, and Satomi continues to glare at her, it turning to yelling after the seventh failed attempt. When Satomi gives up finally, she steps away and Mitsuko starts to applaud her, only stopping when she realises that she might attract unwanted attention. Satomi does not like to fail, and with someone like Mitsuko around, it’s more degrading than usual.

However, instead of a teasing remark like she would expect, Mitsuko actually asks her a real, serious question.

“Why can’t you do it?” Mitsuko asks her, voice quiet. Satomi wonders if it’s a trick, and sticks with hostility, her walls up and firmly set in place.

“If I knew that, I would be able to get over it and do it, wouldn’t I?” Satomi hisses. Mitsuko rolls her eyes, knowing there’s more to it under the surface, that she’ll try to get out of her later, but she’s not going to poke and prod at her. While Satomi probably has a decent idea of her activities on the island, she’s not exactly willing to give her the full story. She did what she had to do, and that’s the end of it.

“So, you do admit now you can’t do it,” Mitsuko says to her, but there’s no amusement at all. “You know, if you can’t, they probably won’t keep you around long. It’s much more effective to shoot someone than, I don’t know, try to beat them to death.” She motions to the punching bag.

“I don’t want to be here,” Satomi snaps, before realising her mistake. “But… I don’t want to die. I won’t die. I tried so hard...”

The first image that comes to mind of Satomi in the Program is the girl hiding in a bush in tears until someone came across her and put her out of her misery, but she can never know for sure, unless she brings it up herself one day. Even though it’s what got them stuck here in the first place, their time on the island is strictly confidential, with only the most important staff having all the details. No one talks about the Program during the day, and she wouldn’t know if anyone decides to bring out their demons at night. She’s alone in her shoebox room, but she figures now that Satomi is back from her apparent trip to crazy land, they’ll be roommates.

Fun.

Mitsuko doesn’t know why she says what she says next. That she’ll help her work through this, when only an hour ago, she was plotting to beat the shit out of her. Maybe deep down, she has a heart. Really, she just doesn’t want to be alone, and Satomi is the closest thing she has to someone on the same level at the moment. She isn’t too ready to let go of that, even though they probably won’t see each other again once they’ve completed their training. It seems most of the time, at least from everything she’s heard, people are assigned to go off alone.

Satomi is surprised too, but she nods at her, saying that she’ll be able to do it. She never thought that her last hope would ever be Mitsuko Souma, but she’s in no place to be picky. She didn’t do everything she did to die, and she most certainly isn’t ready to die again.

They leave the training room, taking care to leave everything the way it was when they came in, and start work tomorrow.

 

It takes over a month for Satomi to actually shoot the gun. Two, to stop closing her eyes when she pulls the trigger. Mitsuko isn’t an easy person to deal with, and is easily frustrated when she just can’t do something she thinks is so easy. It’s just a _target_ , after all, not a fucking person. The target doesn’t always look like a target, though. Satomi isn’t sure if her mind just likes to mess with her or if her sleeping medication has some serious side effects, but nine times out of ten, she sees that dumbass Yukie’s face there instead. Or that bitch Haruka’s, or Chisato’s, who she’s still so sure was the one that did it.

It should get easier when she sees them there, but it doesn’t. It makes it harder than ever, but in the end, she can do it. She can pull the trigger with her eyes open, take a deep breath, and do it again. She doesn’t always hit the marked spots, but she’s better than she used to be by a mile. She wants to live, even though the thought of what comes after the training program and what she knows living life under the Retribution Program entails makes her feel ill. Still, it’s better than being dead. Anything has to be.

She misses high, school, even though she never ended up going. She wonders if she’d still have the same friends, still be top of the class, or if it’d all fall apart for her. She’s sure she would just thrive there, but there’s no point in thinking about what could have been. They barely learn anything here, unless it’s about the government, weaponry, or how they’re going to deal with the real world one day. It’s nowhere near enough.

 

Surprisingly, in the past months, Mitsuko has become a friend, and she’s sure that without her, she would be dead. She pushed her through until she finally fired that gun, for reasons she’s sure she’ll never understand, _wanted_ to help her. Maybe she’s scared of being alone? Satomi is, though she’d never admit it. Being alone would only make this worse, but even when she’s surrounded by people, it does nothing to get rid of her loneliness. The voices in her head overpower everything else, and barely let her breathe.

Tonight is bad. They’re now rapidly approaching the year anniversary, not that it seems like a fitting name, of them being part of the Retribution Program. Her sleeping medication has run out, and it’s too late to try and get herself more. Instead, she stares at the wall, biting her nails until they bleed, until finally, she falls asleep, but she quickly wishes she didn’t.

Her nightmares aren’t creative. They repeat over and over every night, the same one coming back day in and day out for months now. Mutilated bodies attack her, slowly ripping her to pieces, starting with her skin, peeling off the layers until they get to the muscle underneath, and then they start peeling off that too. They yell at her. _It’s all your fault,_ they whisper. _Things could have been different._

_Do you think of me, Satomi? Do you think at all?_

She only realises she’s screaming when Mitsuko starts to shake her, placing a hand over her mouth. She pushes her away with as much strength as she can muster, reaching up to wipe away her tears before she can tell she’s crying. Mitsuko just sits on her bed, it just as uncomfortable as her own, and waits for her to talk. She certainly isn’t going to start. If she does, who knows what shit she might admit.

She might even tell her that she has nightmares too, and that she did long before they ended up here. It’s best to just keep her mouth shut.

“Thanks, I guess,” Satomi croaks several minutes later, deciding to keep her dreams to herself as well. “It was worse than usual, if that makes any sense.”

“I get it,” Mitsuko simply says. “But you aren’t a weak bitch like a thought you were, Noda. You got over it pretty quickly.” She knows that it’s probably replaying over and over in her mind and probably does all day until it comes to life again at night, but she still says it. Here, it’s what’s outside that counts more than anything else, and if she can pull herself together like this, she’ll go far and has more chances of staying alive.

They’ve already seen what’s happened to those who cant. There one day and gone the next, or made an example of on the training room floor. Most of the time, they have to be dragged out in pieces.

Rather unexpected for the two of them, Satomi wraps her arms around Mitsuko, resting her head on her shoulder, trying to get rid of the memories. Eyes wide, Mitsuko doesn’t pull away, and just lets her. They are, after all, all the other has.

 

By the time they leave the Retribution Program at seventeen, they are closer. They can just about tell what the other is thinking most of the time, know how the other feels by just looking at them, and are the only person in the world the other can count on. Despite this, there’s still a lot they don’t tell each other. They’ve still kept one another in the dark about their Program and the nightmares that plague them at night. That’s too close for comfort, especially when they’ll be ripped apart from one another at any given moment.

What they don’t expect is to become one of the only partnerships they’ve had in decades. They work well, the instructors decide, and can probably get more done together than some of the ones that just scraped by will be able to do alone. They are given a small apartment rather close to the grounds they called home for two and a half years, with the promise that they may receive an upgrade if they can prove themselves.

The first few days aren’t too bad. If anything, they’re pretty good. Going outside again after all that time was a bigger experience than they thought it would be, emotional even, as they take in the feelings of the sun on their skin, the sound of trees rustling, and the best, the sounds and the feelings of a rainstorm. They’ve missed this more than they both thought they would.

When they receive their first task two weeks later, the feelings of somewhat freedom disappear. Two and a half years of practising with a target has not prepared Satomi for the real thing. It is dark when they arrive at the scene, and they try to take care of the targets as soon as humanely possible. They didn’t get through all this to fail.

The carpet soaks with blood when they’re done. As expected of them, they position the two on the couch and turn on the television as if nothing happened. Everything is ordinary again. The higher-ups will come tomorrow to collect the bodies, and they’ll truly be history.

They leave as soon as possible. Satomi hates herself for looking at the calendar on their wall. The cross through yesterday, marked with a class trip.

Maybe the kid will get a second chance, if they prove themselves enough. But their parents won’t.

 

It is not easy pulling the trigger. Neither Mitsuko or Satomi are natural born killers or even enjoy what they’re doing, but they comply anyway. There’s no joy in their actions. It’s how they stay alive. It wasn’t easy in the Program, and it isn’t easy now, but they go through it for the same reasons as they did when they killed before – they want to survive. They need to survive.

If they die, it won’t be because they were fucking shot for being unable to complete a task.

They always avoid each other after coming home. They take turns washing the blood off and go their separate ways, as much as they can in the tiny apartment. Even when they don’t have a task though, Satomi and Mitsuko avoid each other now. Being near each other is too hard, now that some realisations have been made.

They aren’t each other’s friends. They’re more than that.

Mitsuko doesn’t know when her feelings for the other girl changed from just tolerating her, to enjoying her company, to leaning on her in the rare times she’d let herself, to what it is now. She has taken notice of the shine of her hair in the light, the feeling of her arms around her in the middle of the night when the nightmares that they’re still not open about come back to play. Her smile, on the rare times it comes out. The feeling of her tears on her shoulder, the feeling of her hair as she runs her fingers through it, a silent reminder to be strong again.

Satomi has always known. She’s never said it out loud. She never will now either, not even when she’s alone. Their apartment is bugged. She checked after they moved in, pretending to be cleaning. She was paranoid, and she has a right to be. She told Mitsuko when they were out one night, and ever since, they’ve restricted most of their conversation to when she’s sure they’re free from prying eyes – or ears. Falling for Mitsuko was never in her plans. She always had a distaste for her in the old days, but the friendship they’ve forged in these past years has changed this.

Mitsuko’s stronger than she thought she was. She always thought she was just a scared little girl hiding behind a tough exterior that will one day crack, but she’s different. She gets up everyday and just keeps going, though Satomi can tell this isn’t easy. She was strong before the Retribution Program, which has only added to her demons, but she doesn’t show any signs of cracking. Mitsuko’s even stronger than she is, and she admires that so much.

She even loves her, but that’s something that will stay quiet. What’s the point of saying anything? They can’t and they never will be able to act on their feelings. Not with eyes and ears on them almost at all times, that they can’t run from, that will make this- whatever it is, impossible.

She can’t get rid of how she feels, though. They can have whatever laws they want, but it won’t magically make her feelings disappear. It doesn’t work like that, even though they want it to.

When Mitsuko cracks, she feels like she is going to drown.

Against everything, she finally acts on her feelings, and nothing is the same again. More than ever, she hates this, and she decides to set a new goal for herself. She’s going to get them out, no matter what it takes.

 

Information about their Program starts to come their way when they’re nineteen. They’ve been ‘together’ if you can call it that, seeing as how little time they get to actually be themselves, for a year now, and until Satomi starts getting bits and pieces of news, her escape plan has been at a standstill. Now, while she has nothing yet, she has hope.

No one won, it seemed, but two people escaped. Noriko Nakagawa and Shuya Nanahara, and no one knows where they are now. It’s all she’s managed to find out yet, from hearing things at the wrong times, but she has hope now. When she starts to figure out where to look with the help of Mitsuko, she has more hope than ever.

If they can do it, so can the two of them. Until then, they just need to keep up pretences. They’re good little soldiers, until they’re not anymore.

 

Two years.

That’s how long it takes, before they finally get out. Two years of telling lies and keeping secrets, of killing and trying not to lose hope, of Satomi making plans and Mitsuko pulling strings, until they manage to get papers, a boat, and some hope of something waiting for them on the other side. They get out when the time seems right, and while it’s not as soon as they would have hoped, they’re getting away, and that’s all that matters.

Mitsuko grasps Satomi’s hand and the other girl kisses her cheek, trying not to let her thoughts get the best of her. She pulls her flask out of her jacket and lets her have a drink. It’s helped them get through these two years even more than hope has.

They have something waiting for them. They can stay together, try to make something new. They tell themselves that they deserve this, that they were just kids, just fucking kids, and shouldn’t have had to do anything that they did. They needed to survive, and they have.

All they hope is that everything won’t eventually get the best of them after all.

 

Feigning normality is hard. Satomi checks, just out of habit and paranoia, that their new apartment is not bugged, relieved when she can find nothing. She still checks every now and then though, _just in case._ Mitsuko lets her, understanding her fears. She’s learnt to be patient. Some days, they can get up and get out there, trying to make amends with the world and start anew, but on others, it doesn’t happen.

They sit there. They drink and smoke and allow themselves to crack, doing everything they can to try and forget, even if it’s only for awhile. Getting drunk helps in the moment, but just makes everything worse in the morning, and definitely isn’t one of the more successful ways of forgetting. They try to help each other as much as they can on the bad days and encourage one another on the good ones.

While they have managed to get jobs, they still haven’t made any new friends or even acquaintances. It’s hard to put themselves out there when everyone you’ve known for the past four or five years you’ve had to get rid of, or just plain want to forget. While they’re in a new place now, far away from everything, it doesn’t automatically change everything.

They keep trying, though. Pushing themselves; it’s the only way they will be able to move on.

One of the things they try to do to push themselves is to go out for dinner. It’s small, but they haven’t been out of the house for days and they’re about to run out of food anyway, so it seems like a step to try to take. They go to a small, hole in the wall place and get a booth towards the back, quiet as they look through the menu and tell themselves that they’ll be fine. It’s just going out for dinner. They can do it.

They make small talk while they wait for their food, such a stupid thing after everything they’ve been through together and close they are, but nothing else feels right. Satomi grasps Mitsuko’s hand and squeezes it tightly, and everything is fine. For now, it’s all okay, and these moments mean so much to them, more than they can ever explain.

When their server almost drops a plate when she comes to bring their dinner, they both jump, and immediately look her right in the eye. She looks just as startled as they are, but the restaurant doesn’t seem to notice. The other staff and patrons go on as normal, going on through their own lives as expected, sparing no notice to the three in the corner, and how confused they look.

She is older. Her eyes _hurt._ She has the same eyes they do, that clearly show she has seen too much in her years. Her hair is tied up tightly, longer than it used to be and her server outfit is much different to anything she would ever choose to wear herself, but they can still tell it is her easily.

Noriko Nakagawa stands in front of them, hands shaking as she places the other dish on the table. They give her a nod before she can go, to let her know her eyes aren’t playing tricks on her, that it’s really them. Noriko seems to get this.

Fate is on their side for once, it seems.


End file.
